The painting
by wilyoldjane
Summary: After Raj Aryan left Narayan Shankars office what will be going on inside of both men? What really changed Shankars mind? - A Mohabbatein fanfic. Please Read and Review!


**Hi! ****Here the first part of the translation of my Fan Fiction Das Bild. I had the Idea after seeing the movie Mohabbatein. **

**I also want to say that I really have no clue about Indian Culture and I want to apologize in advance should I hurt anyone's feelings with this story. It's absolutely not my intention to do so.**

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own any of the characters of the Film of Mohabbatein. They belong to the makers of the movie from Yash Raj Studios and maybe some others. I borrowed them just for the fun of writing.**

**REWIEVS ARE WELCOME!**

**ENJOY**

**WILYOLDJANE**

**Th****oughts**

Narayan Shankar looked for a long time unseeingly at the spot where Raj Aryan had stood just moments ago. The crackling flames in the fireplace filled the room with warmth but Shankar didn't feel it. He felt cold, freezing cold. And for a moment he believed to hear Aryan speaking again: _„You won every battle of life, but you lost everything that was worth living for. " _

Shankar turned around and looked at the garlanded photograph. Megha, his beloved daughter. How much he missed her! His home felt empty without her. _„Do you know, Mr. Shankar, I do not have any photograph of Megha. I never felt the need for it because, I see Megha, wherever I see love. __" _There it was again! Raj Aryans voice full of sadness. It wasn't more than a whisper but it seemed to fill the whole room.

Angry Narayan Shankar extinguished the candles and oil-lamps. The flames in the fireplace had burned down and exactly like them Raj Aryan would soon be vanished from Gurukul. Soon quiet and discipline would rule again in Gurukul. With a last sigh Narayan Shankar went to go to sleep.

But sleep didn't want to come. As soon as Shankar closed his eyes he saw again Raj Aryan standing before him: _„You ever wondered Mr Shankar that why did I ever come back to Gurukul? " _Aryan had asked._ „For whom? The girl I loved is no more. __Who are Vicky, Samir and Karan to me? I did not even know them! __I did not know anyone here I came back for you, Mr. Shankar. I came back for the father of the girl I loved. __"_

Shankar shook his head. He didn't want to think of Raj Aryan. He hated the man! Or didn't he? Within the last weeks he had, even if grudgingly, started to respect the younger man. The man had courage that Shankar had to admit. And he had been a challenge for Shankar. When, within the last years he had felt such alive? _„I came back because she always told me that you were a very loving man, that you were just hard from the outside but very soft from the inside. I came to break that hardness. " _Had Aryan managed to do so? No! Shankar angrily quietened the small voice in his heard. No, that wasn't true! He had won! He had won and he was happy that Aryan would leave Gurukul tomorrow. Really! The small but persistent voice asked. Than why aren't you sleeping now? Why are you still thinking of him when he just annoys you so much? _„I am sorry sir, but from where I see, you lost. "_

After a while Shankar gave up to try to sleep. His memories of Megha and his recent conversation with Aryan kept him awake.

Silently he entered the room of his home he hadn't gone into for years. Meghas room. Everything was still at the same place it had been the night Megha died. Bahadur, the housekeeper, had regularly cleaned away the dust but had left everything else as it had been. On the wall there was a painted landscape. Megha had painted it herself. Shankar loved her paintings and his eyes went to the easel. When he stepped closer could make out Megha and himself on her left side. On her right side there was the unfinished picture of a man: Aryan!

„_I came here because I realized one thing: that Megha was incomplete without you. But you failed to realise, that she was incomplete without me too. Wee__together__made__ her __complete__. I __came__ to __complete__what__we__couldn't__ do in her __lifetime__I came to complete her. I came to complete Megha. " _Lord! Aryan had been right!_ „I thought if I could make just one love story bloom in front of your eyes, you too would see her and that you would see how happy she is and that will take your pain away. I had come to share your pain, Mr. Shankar. I had come to show you love. __"_

Raj Aryan Malhotra. The man hadn't come to destroy him and Gurukul that Shankar now realized. He had come to be his, Narayan Shankars, friend. _„I had told you Mr. Aryan: in the battle of love and fear, fear will always win. I had told you I would win, Mr. Aryan, I had told you." _Now it became clear to him that he never really understood Aryan. The arrogance of his own words was ringing in his ears. He looked at the painting. Megha seemed to look directly at him. _„You won every battle of life. But you lost everything that was worth living for. You lost a daughter than – and now you have lost a son."_

„Megha, I am sorry!"

The morning had finally come. Narayan Shankar could hear the buzzing whispering of the students. After what happened down in the village no one had to ask about the reason of the meeting. When Shankar stepped before his students the sudden quiet was deafening. Shankar was relieved to see Aryan at his usual place in the passage behind the students. Aryan seemed to be a bid pale, but calm.

Sure that he had the attention of everyone Narayan Shankar began his speech: "For 25 years…"

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Raj Aryan too found it difficult to find sleep tonight. Thinking of Narayan Shankar kept him awake. Shankar was a lonely man, but Raj seemed to be the only one to see this. His strict and unyielding mask had become only small and nearly invisible cracks here and there. When Raj had asked him for permission to attend the Holi – feast down in the village. He had honoured Shankar with the Tika on his forehead. Aryan had seen the surprise in Shankars eyes and for the first time saw something else than disappointment there. These small cracks no one else seemed to see had given Raj hope to break the hardness Shankar had surrounded himself with.

But the threatening expulsion of his three protégés had forced Raj to an drastic step – he had to admit his defeat.

Shankars conditions weighted hard on him, too: _" I want you to come tomorrow morning and tell the students, that whatever you have taught them, and believed in, was wrong. I want you to tell them, that you do not believe in love and that you are sorry for misleading them and than quietly leave Gurukul and never come back. "_ To make it short, Narayan Shankar demanded from him to deny everything he believed in. To destroy everything he and his students worked so hard to gain. Hoped Shankar to destroy Raj Aryan too? Raj had accepted Shankar's conditions. There was no other option to spare the three boys his fate. _"I did not come here to make another Raj Aryan. I came here to make sure that no one else becomes a Raj Aryan!"_

Shankar's conditions bothered Raj more than he wanted to admit. Not that he ever promised himself any form of understanding. But the feeling that Shankar wanted to destroy Raj Aryan hurt him.

Like Shankar Raj Aryan was alone. His mother had died when he was a boy and than, shortly after Raj had been expelled from Gurukul, his father died too. Raj had no siblings. The months after his father's death Raj had come to realize that there was only one person left he could count – in a way – as family: Narayan Shankar. In the following years Raj worked hard on his goal to return to Gurukul. He needed an appropriate reputation to get Shankar to accept him as a teacher.

What was even worse than what he would have to do the next morning was the feeling to have failed Megha. He had failed to break Shankar's hardness. He had failed to give Megha what she had wanted most: her father and the man she loved in peace with each other. Shankar would be the real looser here – and he didn't even see it: _„I had told you Mr. Aryan: in the battle of love and fear, fear will always win. I had told you I would win, Mr. Aryan, I had told you. "_

When he saw Shankar standing there, under Meghas photo, he had only felt pity. Pity with the man who had lost everything – and he didn't even realize it. Who couldn't see that he turned his back on the last remaining man who wanted to be his friend, his son. Seeing all this Raj had told him, why he had come back, tried to get through to the man one last time.

"Oh Megha! I'm so sorry!" he whispered and closed his eyes. How much he missed her! Raj felt tired and weary. His eyes still closed Raj felt Megha hugging him and with a sigh found peace for the night.

When Raj opened his eyes it dawned. Looking out of his window he could see Megha down at the temple on the grounds waving at him. He hesitated for a moment. Than Raj left his room. It was time to make his peace with god.

The whispers of the students buzzed through the hall. Everyone feared what now would happen. All whispers stopped immediately when Shankar stepped on the podium. Raj stood on his usual spot behind the students. Shankar would speak first. Raj would not back down – he was ready-

Das Murmeln der Studenten erfüllte die Aula. Jeder war sich bewusst, dass jetzt das große Strafgericht drohte. Als Shankar auf das Podium trat, herrschte schlagartig Stille. Raj Aryan stand an seinem üblichen Platz hinter den Studenten. Shankar würde erst sprechen. Raj würde seinen Teil der Vereinbahrung halten – er war bereit.

Narayan Shankar began his speech: "For 25 years…"


End file.
